Poor writing, pretentious, lack of resolution. The only worthwhile scene from this film is the alley fight. Reviewers lauding t his film as some sort of modern martial arts rebirth are grasping at straws.

THE FINAL MASTER is another mainland Chinese martial arts film which comes across as an open copy of the splendid IP MAN franchise. Sadly, the writing is all over the place here, turning what is a very straightforward storyline into something obtuse and obscure, with rival characters dominating the screen and a choppy narrative to boot. The hero, a Wing Chun master striving to prove his supremacy in a town filled with other masters, comes across as arrogant and selfish, his wife even more so. It says something when the only likeable characters in the film are the couple's dog and a cameo from legendary Shaw Brothers tough guy Chen Kuan Tai. The film's action scenes aren't too shabby, featuring some intricate choreography at times, but when there's no vestige of a decent plot to support them then it doesn't really matter all that much.

"The Final Master" (or just 'Master', as the 'Shīfu' of the original title means) is an interesting martial arts movie, with great atmosphere, camera work and music, but not so good action.The story is simple. Here we have a Wing Chun master (must all kung fu masters have to be Wing Chun masters?; oh, well...) that wants to open a school in Tianjin. He just can't do it, so he decides to choose a random guy from the streets, and teach him his art. The plan is that the apprentice may go and fight masters from other schools, and when he defeats over 8, the master can open his own school. However, then the apprentice will have to be sacrificed so the other schools don't lose face...The story is not very complicated, but Haofeng Xu's direction goes for moody and atmospheric, a very specific camera work and edit, with short cuts and a little bit tongue-in-cheek style, not so common on martial arts movies. It perfectly suits the movie, and makes it have a very interesting tinge.Sadly, the action doesn't deliver as it should. It may be realistic (I am not an expert on this kind of knife fighting), but it doesn't grip the viewer as it could. It just looks a little bit fake, and the fights lack some energy. There is not much originality in the movements, the locations or the pace of the fights, and they don't have as much tension as they should. That lack of tension becomes more and more clear as the ending gets closer."The Final Master" will be enjoyed by martial arts fans, but it feels like a half-baked effort.

I could not disagree more with the reviewer who calls this a "laughable" movie. I did not see the whole movie, only the fight scene where the main character uses his Bart Cham Dao to defeat his challengers. Of course the movie is "choreographed". All martial arts movies are, and especially this one where nothing but real blades are used could not be filmed otherwise.The choreography is probably the best I have seen in the entire series of "Ip Man" movies. I have never seen a fight scene involving the Wing Chun double blades that had better timing and more realistic techniques and exchanges than this one. Over-dramatized? Of course. That's what martial arts movies are all about. But here it was done in a credible way that leaves you with the impression that the actors actually know what they are doing and have practiced for a long time in real life.